Shepard Broad College of Law building outdoor view

Innovation at NSU Law

NSU Helps Reshape the Future of Legal Education Through 7 Transformative Initiatives

Innovation is at the heart of the Modern NSU Shepard Broad College of Law. Every aspect of the law school program has been reassessed and updated to assure the best strategies are available to bring high-quality, high-value legal education to our student, and top quality legal services to the clients we serve. “We’re here for you” connotes far more than our commitment to classroom success; our commitment starts with innovative design and implementation.

A recent Association of American Law School program highlighted key areas of innovation :

• Experiential Education
• International Education
• Dual (Joint) Degree Programs
• Business and Technology Education
• Non-J.D. Education
• Incubator Programs and Post-J.D. Education
• Technology and Start-up Laboratory Programs

NSU Law has led the country in each of these key areas of innovation¹:

Experiential Education - Direct, hands-on experience is the cornerstone of the NSU Law education

NSU Law guarantees every student a live-client experience through an in-house clinic or field placement
NSU Law recently completed a multi-million-dollar, award winning renovation to its building and live client legal clinic, providing state-of-the-art facilities and technology mirroring the best practices in law firm management
NSU Law has added the Sharon and Mitchell W. Berger Entrepreneur Law Clinic for direct representation of start-ups, entrepreneurs, research scientists, and student inventors
NSU Law expanded its in-house clinic through a $1 million gift from the Taft Foundation to create an Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Legal Clinic
NSU Law operates a global Field Placement program, offering live-client experiences in civil, criminal, bankruptcy, and judicial practices, which can place students across the U.S. and abroad
NSU Law extensive workshop program offers nearly three dozen courses that meet the experiential learning requirement as simulation courses

International Education

NSU Law offers an accelerated J.D. program for lawyers with a first law degree from another country and comprehensive support from the law school’s International Students Office to support their transition to the U.S.
NSU Law’s International consortium includes over two dozen partner schools and an annual conference held at NSU focusing on legal education pedagogy and teacher training
J.D. students may earn dual degrees with European University of Barcelona, Spain; Roma Tre University, Rome Italy; or Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
The programs in Spain and Italy are J.D. equivalent degrees while the program in the Czech Republic results in an LL.M. Students may also participate in semester exchange programs in Spain, Italy, and the Czech Republic
Semester abroad programs include Israel and Great Britain

Dual (Joint) Degree Programs and Interdisciplinary Education

J.D. students may earn dual degrees in such disciplines as Accounting, Business Administration, Computer and Information Science, Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Osteopathic Medicine, Tax, Public Health, or through individualized plans.
NSU Law has updated its academic regulations to simplify and accelerate dual degree opportunities with other NSU schools and colleges.
NSU Law offers a 3+3 admissions program with the seven NSU undergraduate colleges.

Business and Technology Education

NSU Law offers the NSU Law Leadership Academy, a specialized program focusing on the “business of lawyering,” with courses including Business Operations for Lawyers, Strategic Business Planning for Lawyers, and Law Practice Business and Technology Workshop, a curriculum designed to teach the complex and rapidly changing legal services industry.
Select partnerships with the NSU Health Professions Division and other schools encourage law faculty to provide non-curriculum lectures and offerings.
Additional opportunities exist to provide non-curriculum lectures and offerings from these and other schools to law students and law alumni.

Non-J.D. Education

NSU Law has become one of the largest programs providing non-lawyer education with four online Master of Science degrees for non-lawyers: M.S. in Health Law, M.S. in Education Law, M.S. in Employment Law, and M.S. in Law and Policy
M.S. programs include specialty concentrations such as Cybersecurity Law
New M.S. topics include Pre-Collegiate, Collegiate, and Professional Sports
The M.S. programs are heavily staffed by NSU Law full-time faculty, providing a robust legal and professional education to the working professionals seeking to expand their understanding of how law impacts their profession

Incubator Programs and Post-J.D. Education

NSU Law operates Florida’s only post-J.D. incubator for recent graduates. Integrated with the NSU Law Clinics, Incubator participants receive professional space support, ongoing training on the launch and development of private law practice, and provide supervised pro bono services to the Veterans or other client clinics.
The Law Center Plus program provides monthly, no-cost CLE offerings for recent graduates.

Technology and Start-up Laboratory Programs

NSU Law provides a number of courses addressing the intersection of law and technology
The NSU Center for Collaborative Research is a 215,000 square foot facility providing a home for translational research
NSU Law is a steering committee member for the Florida Patent Pro Bono Project
NSU Law uses online tools to supplement its courses, including a comprehensive web portal, new course recording tools, smart courtrooms, and many other technologies to assure students learn a modern, efficient model of practicing law

NSU Law is not standing still. Today, NSU Law continues the innovative tradition as one of the first law schools to offer clinical education, the most-wired campus, and first non-J.D. program in Florida. The innovations at NSU Law are designed to anticipate the shifts in the delivery of legal services by better preparing graduates to provide more efficient and cost effective delivery of legal services, thereby expanding access to these services in both the domestic and international market.

¹2015 AALS Annual Meeting, “Implementing Innovation in Law Schools.” Speakers: Daniel B. Rodriguez, AALS President and Northwestern University School of Law; Martin J. Katz, University of Denver Sturm College of Law; Paul Lippe, Chief Executive Officer, OnRamp Systems, Moffett Field, CA; Michael J. Madison, University of Pittsburgh School of Law; and Kellye Y. Testy, University of Washington School of Law.

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